<p class="poetry">The one who vindicates me is close by.p> <p class="poetry">Who dares to argue with me? Let us confront each other!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Who is my accuser?<n id="2" /> Let him challenge me!<n id="3" />p>

I will punish you as an adulteress and murderer deserves.<n id="1" /> I will avenge your bloody deeds with furious rage.<n id="2" />

I am the <sc>Lordsc> your God; follow my statutes, observe my regulations, and carry them out.

So you must keep<n id="1" /> my statutes and my regulations; anyone who does so will live by keeping them.<n id="2" /> I am the <sc>Lordsc>.p>

You yourselves must obey<n id="1" /> my statutes and my regulations and must not do any of these abominations, both the native citizen and the resident foreigner in your midst,<n id="2" />

if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep<n id="1" /> all my commandments and you break my covenant &#8211;

<p class="poetry">But I thought,<n id="1" /> &#8220;I have worked in vain;p> <p class="poetry">I have expended my energy for absolutely nothing.&#8221;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">But the <sc>Lordsc> will vindicate me;p> <p class="poetry">my God will reward me.<n id="3" />p>

In this way<n id="1" /> I will pass sentence<n id="2" /> on the people of Jerusalem and Judah<n id="3" /> because of all their wickedness. For they rejected me and offered sacrifices to other gods, worshiping what they made with their own hands.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

so that they may follow my statutes and observe my regulations and carry them out. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.<n id="1" />

refrains from wrongdoing,<n id="1" /> does not engage in usury or charge interest, carries out my regulations and follows my statutes. He will not die for his father&#8217;s iniquity;<n id="2" /> he will surely live.

I gave them my statutes<n id="1" /> and revealed my regulations to them. The one<n id="2" /> who carries<n id="3" /> them out will live by them!<n id="4" />

I did this<n id="1" /> because they did not observe my regulations, they rejected my statutes, they desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on<n id="2" /> their fathers&#8217; idols.

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;I will display my majesty<n id="1" /> among the nations. All the nations will witness the judgment I have executed, and the power I have exhibited<n id="2" /> among them.

<p class="poetry">I must endure<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s anger,p> <p class="poetry">for I have sinned against him.p> <p class="poetry">But then<n id="2" /> he will defend my cause,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">and accomplish justice on my behalf.p> <p class="poetry">He will lead me out into the light;p> <p class="poetry">I will experience firsthand<n id="4" /> his deliverance.<n id="5" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations,<n id="1" /> so that<n id="2" /> the land to which I am about to bring you to take up residence there does not vomit you out.

&#8220;As for this temple you are building, if you follow<n id="1" /> my rules, observe<n id="2" /> my regulations, and obey all my commandments,<n id="3" /> I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father David.<n id="4" />

<p class="poetry">They seek me day after day;p> <p class="poetry">they want to know my requirements,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">like a nation that does what is rightp> <p class="poetry">and does not reject the law of their God.p> <p class="poetry">They ask me for just decrees;p> <p class="poetry">they want to be near God.p>

Then she defied my regulations and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations<n id="1" /> and the countries around her.<n id="2" /> Indeed, they<n id="3" /> have rejected my regulations, and they do not follow my statutes.p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;Therefore this is what the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> says: Because you are more arrogant<n id="1" /> than the nations around you,<n id="2" /> you have not followed my statutes and have not carried out my regulations. You have not even<n id="3" /> carried out the regulations of the nations around you!p>

But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; they did not follow my statutes and they rejected my regulations (the one who obeys them will live by them), and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I decided to pour out<n id="1" /> my rage on them in the wilderness and destroy them.<n id="2" />